0:00:02 > 0:00:07Heir hunters specialise in tracing people who are entitled to money from someone who has died.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11If we don't do the work, then it's money which is going to go to the Government.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16Often, solving the puzzle means delving back decades into a family's history.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18We had a little bit of success there.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20So he seems to be the right person.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24The research can be complex and frustrating.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27What the hell is going on here?!
0:00:27 > 0:00:30But it can solve family mysteries...
0:00:30 > 0:00:33Absolutely no idea about any of that at all.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36..and help bring people together.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41I think it would be nice if we could all try and meet or phone each other.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45But most of all, it's about giving news of an unexpected windfall.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Could the heir hunters be knocking on your door?
0:00:53 > 0:00:57Coming up... The heir hunters have to play catch-up after misreading a valuable document.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Just realised through looking online that there are some more children.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06A global search to return artwork stolen more than 70 years ago.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Many items weren't reunited with their rightful owners at the end of the war
0:01:12 > 0:01:15because they had already been circulated onto the international art market.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21Plus, how you could be entitled to inherit unclaimed estates held by the Treasury.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Could thousands of pounds be heading your way?
0:01:28 > 0:01:32It's Thursday morning and heir-hunting company Fraser & Fraser
0:01:32 > 0:01:35are busy working several potential cases
0:01:35 > 0:01:38of names published on the Treasury solicitors' bona vacantia list.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42I represent a company of probate researchers here in central London...
0:01:42 > 0:01:45We specialise in tracing missing heirs and beneficiaries.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49But they're also working another case that has been advertised in the newspaper -
0:01:49 > 0:01:52an appeal for relatives of a man called Arnold Holt
0:01:52 > 0:01:55who died in September 2011.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58The deceased is Arnold Holt.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Arnold Holt was born at home in the Tottington area of Bury
0:02:05 > 0:02:09two days before Christmas 1935.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13He lived nearly all his life in the pretty cottage with a rose garden at the front
0:02:13 > 0:02:18and only in later life did he and his wife Edna move to nearby accommodation
0:02:18 > 0:02:20in an extended care scheme.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Manager Anne McGuinness knew the couple well.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Oh, description of Arnold!
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Small, jolly...
0:02:29 > 0:02:30er, glasses,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33a smile that would just lighten up the room.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39When I came here, Arnold was actually living with his wife, Edna.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43And they actually lived in a bungalow just outside of the complex.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47He was actually Edna's main carer at the time.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Both Edna and Arnold as a couple,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55quite a dynamic pair together, really.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57A lovable couple.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01Both had totally different characteristics.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Edna was the strong character, was the boss.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07And Arnold basically did as he was told,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11whether it was the right thing or wrong thing, Arnold did as he was told.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Edna was 11 years older than Arnold,
0:03:14 > 0:03:17and when she died in 2007, Arnold,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21the devoted husband, was devastated.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23Arnold, without Edna,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28for quite some time was very much like he'd lost his right hand.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34Lost all his purpose, really, of going out. Didn't have a need.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38He would sit down in the lounge a lot and chat.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Very much again around where he used to holiday with Edna,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44and they loved Blackpool and Fleetwood.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50We arranged a holiday for him at Blackpool and it brought back a lot of memories for him.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53He used to get very tearful a lot. Very emotional man.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00In the office, the team is working flat out looking for Arnold's family.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02I've been informed by one of your neighbours
0:04:02 > 0:04:07that you may have known a person we're interesting in finding out a bit more about.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Because this case has come from a newspaper advert,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14the team have slightly more information than normal.
0:04:14 > 0:04:19The know Arnold's birth date and the value of the case - around £22,000.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23They work on commission, and research can be expensive,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26so boss Neil will want to solve this case quickly,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31especially as there may be up to 40 rival heir-hunting firms hot on their heels.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35We wouldn't really work many cases much smaller than this,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40so we have to be very careful we don't put a huge amount of resource into solving it.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45The investigation is headed by case managers Dom Hendry and Mike Pow.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48The first thing the researchers have to do
0:04:48 > 0:04:52is to find the birth records of the right Arnold Holt, in 1936.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54But there are several possibilities.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57An Arnold Holt born that day.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02You look it up. There's no births in December '35. There's two in March '36.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05One's an Arnold R and one's an Arnold S.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Looked up Arnold R in 2000 on the Electoral Register,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12- living with an Edna M. It gives us the exact same date of birth as the advert.- Yeah.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14He dies, no issue.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Once the team confirmed Arnold's birth date,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21they could trace his marriage to Edna Quinton in 1971.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24But they could find no children from this marriage.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28So Dom, Mike and the team will have to build up a picture of Arnold's parents,
0:05:28 > 0:05:32any other children they had, or aunts and uncles of Arnold's,
0:05:32 > 0:05:37because it's their living relatives who will be beneficiaries to Arnold's estate.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Just got the marriage of the deceased's parents.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Arnold's parents were Frances Brier and George Holt
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and they married in 1920.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51The witnesses to the marriage were Arnold's maternal and paternal grandfathers,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54which helped the team trace the family back another generation.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57His father's given as Matthew.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The certificate also details George's job.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03He was working as a calico printer's assistant in Bury,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06in the heart of cotton manufacturing.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11Calico is a cotton cloth, and in the 19th century, and first half of the 20th century,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15the textile industry was booming in the north of England.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20Jim Kidd has been a senior manager in the industry for 35 years.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25The industry employed literally hundreds of thousands of people,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29typically in the north of England.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34There were whole towns that just thrived on the textile industry.
0:06:34 > 0:06:40Every community within the town would have been involved somewhere within textiles, whether it be weaving,
0:06:40 > 0:06:46whether it be dyeing, finishing, printing. Textile was just massive.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51George was working here in the 1920s, in his early 20s,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55and he was responsible for preparing machinery for the printer
0:06:55 > 0:06:57before the calico was fed through.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59It was a young man's job,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02because shifting tools and machinery was hard work.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07In those days, there were no sort of manual handling regulations like we have today.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Everything was just done physically.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Cloth was pushed, colour was dragged, lifted onto trucks.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18And by the time Arnold was born in 1935,
0:07:18 > 0:07:23George's occupation, recorded on Arnold's birth certificate, was a calendar man -
0:07:23 > 0:07:29a role which ensured the fabric had been given that all-important finishing touch.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And the object of a calendar
0:07:31 > 0:07:34is to put a sort of finish onto the actual fabric.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38It applies pressure onto the fabric, and it ends up with a nice sheen.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43And that would have been George's job, to actually sort of just run the calendar.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45I think maybe as George got older,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49he's said, "I want something a bit less intensive."
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And it seems the Holt family stayed true to the textile industry,
0:07:53 > 0:07:57and it rewarded them with job security and romance to boot.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03I understand met his wife in a textile factory in the north of England.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06And George's son coming into the industry was certainly not uncommon.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10I mean, in those days, whole families would be involved in working for the same company.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13And all this was great when the industry was booming,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18this was fantastic, because it creates employment for the whole of the family, or families.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Back in the office, research is well underway on George and Frances's marriage.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29The team have found that they had two children -
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Arnold and his sister, Alice,
0:08:31 > 0:08:33who died in 2000.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Although Alice married twice,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39she, like her brother Arnold, never had any children.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43So the next step is to research Arnold's grandfathers,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46named on his parents' marriage certificate,
0:08:46 > 0:08:48to see if they had any other children.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Firstly, Aisha researches the paternal side,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54but soon enough, she's worked out what's happened to them.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Oh! Oh, Dominic. Yeah, it's right.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00The paternal side's right.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Cos his dad's Matthew.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03- So it's dead?- So it's dead.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05- High five for Aisha.- Yeah!
0:09:05 > 0:09:06Come on!
0:09:09 > 0:09:12It looks like George is the only surviving stem on this side of the family,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15which, obviously, is the deceased's family, so,
0:09:15 > 0:09:20therefore it looks like everyone on this side of the family has died.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22This is bad news.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24The paternal side of the family have died out,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28which means the team can now only work the maternal side.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31They're several hours in, and their chances of finding heirs
0:09:31 > 0:09:33are reducing by the minute.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38Now the office have to plough all their energies into the maternal side of the tree,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42through Arnold's mother, Frances Brier.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Her father is James Brier.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48And Frances is his mother.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50By looking on the 1901 census,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52the team have found Frances Brier
0:09:52 > 0:09:54living with her parents and five siblings,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57all stems of the family that will need researching
0:09:57 > 0:09:59and could produce heirs.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Frances's five siblings were Arnold, James,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Ernest, Ethel and Leonard,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07and two more siblings who died in infancy.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Researcher Aisha is working on one of the sisters.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13I'm looking for Ethel Brier,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16but I can't seem to find a death for her.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20So I'm going to check all records and see if anything comes up.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27And case manager Dom passes another one of the siblings to researcher Emma for her to work up.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Everything on this stem I'm sceptical about, so could you have another look,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33see if there's any better marriages for James,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36any better marriages for Joan, work them up and see if we can disprove them.
0:10:36 > 0:10:37- All right?- Mm-hm.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40But hours into the research on this case,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Aisha realises the team could have made a very costly mistake.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46What the hell is going on here?!
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Heir hunters spend their lives tracking down relatives
0:10:54 > 0:10:56of people who have died without leaving a will.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Often what's left behind is property or cash,
0:10:59 > 0:11:04but sometimes heirs can find themselves inheriting rather unusual assets.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07And this was the case when London-based Hector Birchwood,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11co-owner of heir-hunting firm Celtic Research,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13began tracing relatives of Jehudo Epstein,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17a Jewish artist who had died in 1945.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23Well, initially my agent in Vienna called me
0:11:23 > 0:11:26to tell me that he believed there would be a family that would be entitled
0:11:26 > 0:11:31to some paintings by an artist from Vienna,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34whose name was Jehudo Epstein.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37He asked me to see if I could trace them.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39We had some clues in South Africa
0:11:39 > 0:11:44and he believed they may have had descendants who emigrated to the United Kingdom.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50The search for heirs to these paintings would reveal an astonishing story
0:11:50 > 0:11:53of wartime theft on an industrial scale.
0:11:55 > 0:12:01The case centres around Jehudo Epstein, a successful artist in the first half of the last century.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06Jehudo was described as a kindly man, a sage man.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10We don't know a tremendous amount about him.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16He was trained in the academic way of painting and he looked rather academic,
0:12:16 > 0:12:22in a three-piece suit. He was balding, he was a small man, but he was also said
0:12:22 > 0:12:27to be very good-humoured, very kind and very intelligent.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Jehudo was born in Minsk in 1870.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34He had a very stable Jewish childhood.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36The area was very poor
0:12:36 > 0:12:42and there was quite a lot of anti-Semitism against Jews at the time.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47However, it was a coherent, cohesive community
0:12:47 > 0:12:49and he remembered particularly
0:12:49 > 0:12:53the enjoyable Friday night suppers.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59But by the time Jehudo was 20, he had moved from his native Belarus
0:12:59 > 0:13:04and was living in Austria, studying at the Vienna Academy of Fine Art.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08It would have been very prestigious for him to enter the Academy.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10It was highly regarded
0:13:10 > 0:13:14and not only did he prosper in terms of the teaching he absorbed,
0:13:14 > 0:13:19but he was later to be honoured by the Academy with a professorship.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And Jehudo took inspiration from memories of his earlier years
0:13:24 > 0:13:26growing up in Belarus.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32He focused on Eastern European Jewish life, and his paintings were informed
0:13:32 > 0:13:37by the memories he brought with him of his childhood in Minsk -
0:13:37 > 0:13:42the ceremonies he'd observed and the closeness of the Jewish population.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47All of this fed into the painting that he did when he was in Vienna.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51And it was very important, perhaps, for him to be able to recreate that life
0:13:51 > 0:13:54in his paintings, as it was the life he'd left behind.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00And it was the Vienna Academy, where Jehudo had been a student, who first
0:14:00 > 0:14:03raised the question of whether they may still hold one of his works,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06which rightfully belonged to his family.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11The painting is an unnamed painting of a blonde girl,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14painted by Jehudo Epstein back in 1921.
0:14:14 > 0:14:20It appears that the painting was given as a gesture by an art dealer.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24But the Academy suspected that before it was given to them,
0:14:24 > 0:14:29the painting may have been stolen and now they wanted it to go back to Jehudo's family.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33An article in a local paper was spotted by Hector's agent,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37and intrigued by the challenge of finding heirs to an artwork,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Hector decided to trace Jehudo's relatives.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45We have to prove the provenance of a particular artwork,
0:14:45 > 0:14:47as well as the family relationship.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50And unlike a public administrator case,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53the assets are not held in one place.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55They may be dispersed, not just within one country,
0:14:55 > 0:15:00not just within a single set of galleries. They may be dispersed
0:15:00 > 0:15:03all over the world and held by very many different people,
0:15:03 > 0:15:08many of which may have perhaps bought the painting or accepted the painting
0:15:08 > 0:15:12as a gift without knowing that the painting was actually stolen.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19Nonetheless, Hector began the task of building up Jehudo's family tree.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23He was able to establish that Jehudo had been married to Augusta,
0:15:23 > 0:15:24but they never had children,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28which meant he would have to look to the wider family tree
0:15:28 > 0:15:31to find heirs. And so he began to look for details
0:15:31 > 0:15:33of Jehudo's parents.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Jehudo Epstein was the son of Jacob Epstein.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40He had a sister, Francesca Esther.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Esther, like her brother Jehudo,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47had moved from their native Belarus to live in Vienna.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50And there, it seemed she had married and had a son called Hans.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53But by the late 1930s,
0:15:53 > 0:15:59Austria was becoming an increasingly dangerous place for Jews like Esther and her brother Jehudo.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Life would have been very difficult for Jehudo and artists like him
0:16:04 > 0:16:10in Vienna. As Jews, they could be stripped of the professorships,
0:16:10 > 0:16:15forbidden to work, unable to sell their paintings, so basically,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17unable to make a living.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Jews were actively persecuted. This persecution
0:16:21 > 0:16:23ratcheted up throughout the '30s,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27culminating in the annexation of Austria in 1938,
0:16:27 > 0:16:33after which, many Jews were sent to concentration camps.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36So life would have become impossible by 1938,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40and it's likely that Jehudo actually left before that.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46Jehudo, who had made Vienna his home for 40 years, fled to South Africa.
0:16:46 > 0:16:52Perhaps in choosing South Africa, he chose a country out of Europe,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56which would, hopefully, not be so affected
0:16:56 > 0:16:58by the spreading world war.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Jehudo decided to place his art collection in safe hands,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09and entrusted his Jewish friend, Bernard Altman, to keep hold of it in Vienna.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13But when Austria was annexed by Hitler in 1938,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17Bernard's businesses and all his assets were seized by the Nazis,
0:17:17 > 0:17:21and Jehudo's paintings, stored at one of his factories,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24were looted along with everything else.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29The Commission for Looted Art in Europe was set up to research,
0:17:29 > 0:17:34trace and return art stolen by the Nazis in 1930s and '40s.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37I think the looting of art was part of the process that the Nazis
0:17:37 > 0:17:40established in 1933, when they came to power.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Which was that they started first of all
0:17:42 > 0:17:44by stripping the Jews of their professions,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and it moved on to stripping them of their possessions, and then
0:17:47 > 0:17:52ultimately of their lives. So it was a tripartite process, if you like.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56The Nazis said, "OK, we'll give the museums first right
0:17:56 > 0:18:01"to the best works, after we - the Nazi leaders - have taken what we want"
0:18:01 > 0:18:04because Hitler and Goering were building up their collections.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09The very best of these paintings were photographed and they were sent
0:18:09 > 0:18:12to Hitler in bound albums, so he could take his pick
0:18:12 > 0:18:15of the best of the world's art.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20He and Goering vied as to who would get the best paintings.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24And even art that the Nazi regime did not rate was useful to them.
0:18:24 > 0:18:29They had very clear ideas of what they thought was good art and bad art,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33and art that was desirable and art that was undesirable.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37So what they would do was, in order to obtain the works of art that they loved,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39which were Old Master paintings,
0:18:39 > 0:18:44they would set up these exchanges through swaps through Switzerland.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47Goering was generally in charge of them.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50So they would exchange perhaps 20 Impressionist paintings, three Van Goghs,
0:18:50 > 0:18:55two Cezannes, four Renoirs, and so on, for one Old Master painting.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59And Switzerland acted as the kind of entrepot for this,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02the launder, the place where you could launder the art.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06It's impossible to put an exact figure on how many pieces of artwork
0:19:06 > 0:19:10were plundered by the Nazis. The Commission has reunited families
0:19:10 > 0:19:12with 4,000 pieces during the past decade.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17But there are many tens of thousands more missing items scattered across the world.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Many items weren't reunited with their rightful owners at the end of the war,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25because they had already been circulated
0:19:25 > 0:19:27onto the international art market.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29If things had been auctioned, as many were,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32then it was very hard to go and find out
0:19:32 > 0:19:34who it was who'd bought it at that auction.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37Also, remember that you're in a post-war period
0:19:37 > 0:19:41where there's still a lot of very unpleasant feeling about.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46The denazification process which went on took an awful long time,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and it wasn't a very easy prospect for anybody without any resources.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Remember that everything had been taken from them. They had nothing to...
0:19:54 > 0:19:57They had to start their lives all over again, these people.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03So having learned that Jehudo had fled to South Africa,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08Hector began his search there to see if his sister Esther and her son Hans
0:20:08 > 0:20:11might have followed him to this country.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15He couldn't find them in South Africa, but eventually tracked Hans down in Britain.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18But then Hector faced a new challenge.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22When you're dealing with Jewish genealogy, you always have to be mindful of the fact
0:20:22 > 0:20:28that people adopt different names at different stages of their lives,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31so you may have a religious name being used,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35you may have a secular, Gentile name being used.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40Sometimes there'll be anglicised names. So, in this case, um...
0:20:40 > 0:20:42Hans became Harry.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46But what had become of Harry? Hector had to trace his family
0:20:46 > 0:20:50in the hope that it might lead him to Jehudo's descendants -
0:20:50 > 0:20:53the rightful owners of his paintings.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57And as Jehudo's family were traced, there were fascinating details
0:20:57 > 0:20:58for them to learn and discover.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01Absolutely no idea about any of that at all.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11Heir hunters track down thousands of rightful beneficiaries every year.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13But not all cases can be cracked.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18There are thousands of estates on the Treasury's unclaimed list that have eluded the heir hunters
0:21:18 > 0:21:19and remain unsolved.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24To claim an estate of someone who's died intestate,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27you need to trace your relationship in a direct line
0:21:27 > 0:21:29from the deceased person's grandparents.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33They need to supply us with certificates of birth, death and marriage,
0:21:33 > 0:21:35and identity documents as well.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40Today we're focusing on two cases which still have to be solved.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44Could you be the beneficiary they've been looking for?
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Could you be about to inherit some money from a long-lost relative?
0:21:51 > 0:21:55First is the case of Brian Gordon Scriven, who died in Haywards Heath
0:21:55 > 0:21:58in West Sussex on the 19th of August 1997.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02Researchers have worked hard on this case,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05but have not been able to establish much about Brian.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Are you Brian's relative? Or perhaps you were a friend or neighbour
0:22:11 > 0:22:13living in Haywards Heath in 1997?
0:22:14 > 0:22:17Do you have any information that might solve this case?
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Next, can you shed any light on the case of Joseph Dougan,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25who died on the 26th of January 2006?
0:22:25 > 0:22:29His last address was Titwood Road in Glasgow.
0:22:31 > 0:22:32Because Joseph died in Scotland,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34his name has been published
0:22:34 > 0:22:36on the Queen and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer list.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41And unlike the bona vacantia list, which publishes names of people
0:22:41 > 0:22:45who have died intestate in England and Wales, the QLTR does publish
0:22:45 > 0:22:47the value of estates.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51So the list reveals Joseph's estate is worth...
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Do you have any information that could help crack this case?
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Both Brian and Joseph's estates remain unclaimed, and if no-one
0:23:04 > 0:23:07comes forward, their money will go to the Government.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12When considering a claim for an estate, it's very important
0:23:12 > 0:23:14that the person puts forward a very good case.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16And it's all based on the evidence.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19What we need are the birth, death and marriage certificates,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22perhaps something on adoption. Then we consider the evidence very carefully.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Do you have any clues
0:23:25 > 0:23:28that could help solve the cases of Brian Gordon Scriven
0:23:28 > 0:23:33and Joseph Dougan? If so, you could have a fortune coming your way.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41At heir-hunting firm Fraser & Fraser,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45the team is looking into the case of Arnold Holt,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48a retired factory worker who died in Bury in 2011.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54The team has already established that Arnold left around £20,000.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58That's not a big-value case for the company, who work on commission.
0:23:58 > 0:24:04And because they're competing against up to 40 rival firms, the team has to act quickly.
0:24:05 > 0:24:06I'm quite excited.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Arnold spent the last few years of his life living in an extended care scheme,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16where he was able to live independently, but with the added bonus
0:24:16 > 0:24:19of 24-hour support if he needed it.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Manager of the home Anne McGuinness remembers Arnold as a sprightly resident.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Oh, gosh, you couldn't stop Arnold. Arnold would be
0:24:29 > 0:24:31the first to get up dancing.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35Arnold would be the first, if it was dressing-up, to dress up.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38His thespian qualities used to come out a lot then!
0:24:38 > 0:24:43He would dance with staff. Every day, first visit in the morning,
0:24:43 > 0:24:48"You won't forget me today? I'll come in the lounge in the afternoon, won't I?"
0:24:48 > 0:24:50"Yes, you will, Arnold."
0:24:50 > 0:24:55But in the last few months of his life, Arnold's health deteriorated,
0:24:55 > 0:24:59and he had to leave his home to receive round-the-clock medical care.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04He did not want to leave. Cos he saw this as his home. And he also saw us
0:25:04 > 0:25:06as his family, basically.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12I think my lasting memories of Arnold will be...
0:25:12 > 0:25:18There'll be shoes that'll never be filled here, with Arnold's characteristics.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22He was a large character, but such a humble character,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26and a very polite, lovable gentleman.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Yeah, and he is missed every day here.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40In London, the team are focusing on Arnold's mother, Frances Brier,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44because they've worked out there are no living family on Arnold's father's side.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Using census records, the team has already established
0:25:48 > 0:25:50that Frances had five siblings -
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Arnold, James, Ernest, Ethel and Leonard -
0:25:53 > 0:25:56and two more siblings who died in infancy.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01But just as they think they've found all of Frances's siblings,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05it dawns on Aisha that they've made a big mistake.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Just realised through looking online that there's some more children.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12- Was Annie the other one I was missing?- Yeah.- Is she the only other one?
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Frances Brier had two more siblings -
0:26:17 > 0:26:19a brother, Royston, and a sister, Annie.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24Now the team has to start searching for them, because if they
0:26:24 > 0:26:28had children, their living descendants will be beneficiaries
0:26:28 > 0:26:32to Arnold's estate. But Royston in particular is proving very tricky
0:26:32 > 0:26:34to pin down.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37There's two Royston Briers, both born on the 29th of December,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41one in 1885 and one in 1886.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43But the baptism date...
0:26:43 > 0:26:46One's in 1886 and one's in 1891 -
0:26:46 > 0:26:50same parents but it's got a different address
0:26:50 > 0:26:52and different job for the father.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55So it's definitely not duplicated.
0:26:55 > 0:26:56It's a different copy.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02So, whether or not they forgot they baptised him and baptised him again, I don't know!
0:27:04 > 0:27:08It's just... It's probably a red herring, but we'll have to have
0:27:08 > 0:27:10a look anyway, see what we can find.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14This just doesn't make sense. Why would Royston's parents baptise him twice?
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Mike and Aisha try and find Royston and his father on the 1891 census.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23They want to match the father's occupation
0:27:23 > 0:27:27with the one recorded on the baptism, to prove that they have the right family.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32- Here we go.- What's his occupation then?- He's only five, Michael!
0:27:32 > 0:27:34- No, the dad.- Oh.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40He's a joiner, and a labourer, and a porter.
0:27:40 > 0:27:41He gets around!
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Bit of everything - a jack of all trades.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Work-wise, it seems James Brier
0:27:47 > 0:27:50did a bit of everything, so this route hasn't helped them.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54But as they have found Royston on the 1891 census with his family,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57at least they've proved he was one of Arnold's uncles.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Royston is on the 1891 census, so he is real.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09Experienced senior research Alan Riches is now searching
0:28:09 > 0:28:14for Royston's sister, Annie. He thinks he may have got to the bottom of the mystery.
0:28:15 > 0:28:16She's born as Hannah.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20It turns out she wasn't an Annie after all.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Right, Annie Brier was on the 1891 census in Halifax.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28I then did a death of all Briers
0:28:28 > 0:28:31in Halifax only for a ten-year period, between 1891 and 1901.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Then I went through them all, looking to see if anything could be her,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38because she might have changed her name a little bit. And that's actually what she did do.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40Annie became Hannah.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45I found a death for her in April 1891 in Halifax.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Realising Annie's stem died out means there's still no heirs traced
0:28:50 > 0:28:54on this case, and the odds of finding one are diminishing all the time.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58But Dom is hopeful that Arnold's uncle, James Brier, might have
0:28:58 > 0:29:00married and had children.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02I have got a marriage in 1920 to an Annie Cunliffe.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07The son dies infant. The daughter, Joan Brier, of that marriage,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11was born December 1922
0:29:11 > 0:29:13in Halifax.
0:29:14 > 0:29:19Now, simply because of those deaths, I went with a marriage in 1961
0:29:19 > 0:29:21to a Matthew Shields.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25Finally, there's a stem of the family
0:29:25 > 0:29:27that seems to have produced heirs.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29James's daughter Joan married Matthew
0:29:29 > 0:29:31and they had three children of their own,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33who are entitled to Arnold's estate.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41And as they research Ernest's stem, they find more living beneficiaries.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Ernest married Beatrice in 1920 and they had four children.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48One of their grandchildren is Janice Freeman,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52and she's entitled to a share of Arnold's estate as well.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56It was a real shock to find out that Arnold had died
0:29:56 > 0:29:58and that I could be an heir.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Well, I know he used to play the piano,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03because when we used to go for tea,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05he used to sit and play the piano.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09I remember him having dark hair. But he probably was a very quiet man.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14Janice remembers that Arnold and his mother were a tight-knit family.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20He used to show cine films of when Auntie Frances and him went on holiday,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22and we used to have projector little shows.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26But I remember it was really fascinating to watch these moving pictures on this projector.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28It was fantastic.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33Any money Janice may inherit from Arnold will be used to keep his memory alive.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37I think I'll probably buy a piece of jewellery.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Rather than fritter it away on something,
0:30:39 > 0:30:41then that's something that could be passed down
0:30:41 > 0:30:47to my daughters. It's sort of a link, then, to the older end of the family for them.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56With the help of the heirs they've spoken to, the company eventually
0:30:56 > 0:31:00manage to trace and sign up seven heirs to Arnold's estate.
0:31:00 > 0:31:06Although for now the elusive missing Uncle Royston has proved to be too difficult a puzzle to solve.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11But in the following days,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15senior researcher Roger has the most extraordinary piece of luck,
0:31:15 > 0:31:20thanks to the diligence of an unknown official filling out a census nearly 100 years ago.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24I couldn't find anything on Royston.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31So I went back to looking at his mum and dad and trying to find,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35um...trying to find the census.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39And on one of the censuses for Frances,
0:31:39 > 0:31:41his mother, it said "see notes".
0:31:43 > 0:31:47So I looked up the notes. There was a massive McDanielson family history,
0:31:47 > 0:31:49with lots of clues on it,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53one being that, yes, he had a son called Royston,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58born 1884, which we knew about. Then it also said in the small print that
0:31:58 > 0:32:03"Royston Brier may be the same individual found on the 1920 and '30
0:32:03 > 0:32:07"US census records under the name James Royston McDanielson,"
0:32:07 > 0:32:08which was the maiden name.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14So the mystery is solved. Royston was hard to track down
0:32:14 > 0:32:16because not only did he change his name,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20but he emigrated to America in the early part of the last century.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25The team has been trying to gather as much information as they can about him.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31He died in 1942 in Galveston, Texas, USA. We've attempted to try and get
0:32:31 > 0:32:35his death certificate, which is proving a bit of a difficulty,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39because, erm...American states are notoriously difficult for trying
0:32:39 > 0:32:42to get any vital records out of them. You usually have to be a family member
0:32:42 > 0:32:45or a solicitor. So we're still attempting to get that certificate,
0:32:45 > 0:32:50in the hope that it may have an informant or a bit more family information.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52We've still got a couple of heirs outstanding.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55I think there are three we're still chasing up at the moment.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00Hopefully we should get their signatures within the next few weeks.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10At heir-hunting firm Celtic Research, Hector Birchwood had been working on a case
0:33:10 > 0:33:13where he'd been trying to track down relatives
0:33:13 > 0:33:14who were entitled not to money,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17but a painting by an artist called Jehudo Epstein.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21And it seemed the search would spread far and wide.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28This case has a number of interesting facets to it, in that the family left
0:33:28 > 0:33:35before the genocide began in Nazi-occupied Europe. So it does have
0:33:35 > 0:33:39a different aspect from most of the Jewish cases that we normally deal with.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45The case arrived on Hector's desk after an academy in Austria
0:33:45 > 0:33:48became concerned that an Epstein painting in their gallery
0:33:48 > 0:33:50may have been plundered by the Nazis during the war.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58It appears that the painting was given as a gesture by an art dealer
0:33:58 > 0:34:03to the university back in 1987. And they seemed to be very happy about
0:34:03 > 0:34:05the painting going to its rightful owner.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10Jehudo Epstein was born in Belarus, but became a painter,
0:34:10 > 0:34:16making a successful living after moving to Vienna in the first half of the last century.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21But in the 1930s, when life became very difficult for Jews living in Austria,
0:34:21 > 0:34:23Jehudo emigrated to South Africa.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28It must have been a tremendous wrench for Jehudo to leave behind the city
0:34:28 > 0:34:30where he'd lived for so long.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33He'd come there as a boy of 18, and he was
0:34:33 > 0:34:37about 65 when he left, so his entire mature life had been spent
0:34:37 > 0:34:43in the city. He'd done well there. He'd built up a reputation,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45a body of work, no doubt friends.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48And all of this he would have had to have left behind
0:34:48 > 0:34:50when he went to South Africa.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54Because Jehudo was forced to flee, he had no choice but to leave
0:34:54 > 0:34:57his artwork with his good friend Bernard Altman,
0:34:57 > 0:35:01who stored them in one of his Austrian-based factories.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05But this would not be the safe place that Jehudo had thought it could be.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10It's not surprising that Jehudo's collection was seized by the Nazis,
0:35:10 > 0:35:14because this was very common at the time, particularly after
0:35:14 > 0:35:19the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria, in 1938,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21when Aryanisation laws were brought in.
0:35:21 > 0:35:29Which meant that property was taken over by the National Socialists
0:35:29 > 0:35:35and many people found not just paintings but businesses
0:35:35 > 0:35:38and homes were lost.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44Hector was trying to trace living descendants of Jehudo, in the hope
0:35:44 > 0:35:48of connecting them with the Academy in Vienna, who suspected
0:35:48 > 0:35:50the painting had been stolen by the Nazis.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55After searching through records, Hector had already discovered that
0:35:55 > 0:35:59Jehudo had had a sibling who had died. But he hoped this discovery
0:35:59 > 0:36:00would lead him to living relatives.
0:36:02 > 0:36:10He had a sister, Esther Epstein, who then married Isaac Alexander Cemach.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15They had one son, Harry, otherwise Hans Cemach. And then he came to England
0:36:15 > 0:36:20and married. We were then able to find his two children
0:36:20 > 0:36:21from that marriage.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27Once Hector had realised that Hans had become Harry and married Ruth Stein,
0:36:27 > 0:36:31he discovered they'd had two daughters, both of whom were still alive.
0:36:32 > 0:36:33One of them was Anne Starkey,
0:36:33 > 0:36:38and she and her sister were Jehudo's only living relatives.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42I got a call to say they'd discovered some oil paintings done
0:36:42 > 0:36:46by my great-uncle in Vienna, which were put in safekeeping when
0:36:46 > 0:36:51the Nazis invaded. They'd done some research and found out that
0:36:51 > 0:36:55my sister and I were the only two heirs, as far as we know,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59and would we be interested in trying to recoup the pictures?
0:36:59 > 0:37:00I'm feeling excited.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05My sister's feeling excited. Purely because of the fact that we'll learn
0:37:05 > 0:37:10more about our family history. Hopefully we will. We'll find out
0:37:10 > 0:37:14things that we didn't know. And hopefully, it's going to be really,
0:37:14 > 0:37:16really interesting.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Now that Hector has traced Anne and her sister, the family are keen
0:37:21 > 0:37:25to find out if there are any other missing paintings by Jehudo.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31News of her connection to Jehudo Epstein has piqued Anne's interest
0:37:31 > 0:37:34in this part of her family. Since hearing from Hector,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39she's got in touch with art collector David Glasser, who is an expert on Jewish art.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43And today, she's come to see him to learn more.
0:37:43 > 0:37:48- Thank you.- How are you?- I'm fine. I'm hear to find out about my great-uncle, Jehudo Epstein.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Your great-uncle was a very distinguished artist.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55And he painted particularly portraiture.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57He painted the scenes
0:37:57 > 0:38:01that he remembered around him from his youth,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03which was Jewish shtetl, Jewish village life.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06But once he became more emancipated in Vienna,
0:38:06 > 0:38:09he also developed that portraiture to become a portraitist,
0:38:09 > 0:38:11and that's how he earned his living.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14He would paint important members of society.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18This was his means of making a living, and in a very distinguished manner too.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24David is able to give some background on Jehudo's decision to leave Vienna.
0:38:25 > 0:38:291935, the infamous Nuremberg Laws were passed.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32And that essentially
0:38:32 > 0:38:36would strip Professor Epstein of his title and his position.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40Nobody will employ him, nobody will give him exhibitions.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41Where does he go?
0:38:41 > 0:38:44For those Jews who saw and realised that, actually,
0:38:44 > 0:38:45this is potentially fatal,
0:38:45 > 0:38:50as of course it ended up, the issue was getting out. Where do they go?
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Well, Jews went into Europe.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56So, for example, many Jews from Austria would go to Poland
0:38:56 > 0:38:58or go to Czechoslovakia.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00But other Jews realised that,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04actually, Germany was in an expansive mood, nobody was going to stop them,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06and they weren't safe in Europe.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10They will go as far away from Hitler as possible.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13America, South America, China,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16the Far East, and South Africa.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Anne wants to know about Bernard Altman,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21the man with whom Jehudo entrusted his paintings.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25His name keeps coming up, and I didn't know whether perhaps he was
0:39:25 > 0:39:29somebody in the art world, or...
0:39:29 > 0:39:33Not as far as we know. As you say, Altman comes up in the story,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and therefore we've taken note of his role in all this,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41and for sure, we think he's a completely innocent party,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44because ultimately, the Nazis actually closed him down,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47as far as we understand, and took his belongings.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Then the question is, what happened to the artwork? Because remember,
0:39:52 > 0:39:54the Nazis were not collecting works
0:39:54 > 0:39:57by Jehudo Epstein or by Jewish artists.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59But they wouldn't destroy them, particularly,
0:39:59 > 0:40:01because there was money in it.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05- Yeah.- And remember, this was simply business. It was a money-making exercise.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09- Yeah.- So these works would have been, in all likelihood, sold.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13It's not known if Jehudo's wife, Augusta, went to South Africa
0:40:13 > 0:40:16with him. But David is able to shed some light
0:40:16 > 0:40:19on what she did after Jehudo passed away.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21When your great-uncle died in 1945,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25- he was cremated in the Jewish cemetery.- In South Africa?
0:40:25 > 0:40:28- In Johannesburg.- Oh, right.- But his wife
0:40:28 > 0:40:35- brought back his ashes to Vienna in 1948, I think.- Right.- Maybe 1949.
0:40:36 > 0:40:40- So, at some point she must have been in South Africa.- Right.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43And maybe she did go to bring back his ashes.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46And his ashes are now buried in the Jewish cemetery in Vienna.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49I had absolutely no idea about any of that at all.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53So that's been a revelation. It's been really, really interesting.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57And there's another very special reason
0:40:57 > 0:40:59why Anne has been invited to see David today.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03I bought it because, A - I wanted a painting by Jehudo Epstein
0:41:03 > 0:41:07for my collection and B - I thought this was a particularly fine example.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12- This was certainly done 1915 or before.- Really?
0:41:12 > 0:41:17So it's right in mid-life, right in the peak of his career, OK?
0:41:17 > 0:41:21He was already a professor. And you can already see,
0:41:21 > 0:41:23if you look at the colour palette,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27- it's no longer dark. He introduces white.- Yes.
0:41:27 > 0:41:32And shades of white. And captures that moment wonderfully well.
0:41:32 > 0:41:38And what I want to say to you is...that if this painting is on a list,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42and it is your property, then you will have it back.
0:41:42 > 0:41:43Right. OK, thank you.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46- Absolutely 100% guaranteed. - Thank you.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53And David has one more surprise for Anne - a copy of Jehudo's memoirs,
0:41:53 > 0:41:54written in 1929.
0:41:56 > 0:41:58It's in absolutely immaculate condition.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03- It's called Mein Weg Von Ost Nach West.- My Journey From North To West.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08My Journey From North To West. And this is absolutely perfect condition,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11and I'd like to give this to you as a memento of the occasion.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14And I hope that when you come back to me and say,
0:42:14 > 0:42:20- "David, the picture's not on my list" then you will accept the book with my pleasure.- Thank you!
0:42:20 > 0:42:22And if I have to give you the picture too,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25- then maybe you might give me the book back.- Deal.- A deal?
0:42:25 > 0:42:27- Thank you very much.- My pleasure.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31Although David has given Anne some answers,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35it's clear she has only just begun her journey of discovery.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39I'm just absolutely amazed
0:42:39 > 0:42:42that we now can find out about this.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44I know very, very little about the man himself,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47and this is what's going to make it so interesting,
0:42:47 > 0:42:48to find out all about him.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55If you would like advice about building a family tree
0:42:55 > 0:42:57or making a will, go to...
0:43:03 > 0:43:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd